Pages

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Americans for Prosperity - "We Hate Old and Poor People!"

In the photo below members of Americans for Prosperity rally in support of the court challenge to
ObamaCare® (a.k.a. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act).
Now the radical right-wing groups, some misleadingly and patriotically named like "Americans for Prosperity",
are trying to kill America's beloved Medicare. That's almost funny. Last year these
very same people were carrying signs demanding President Obama to "Keep your hands off my
Medicare". Now their signs just generically read
"healthcare". The word "Medicare" is conspicuously missing.
I pity all those poor ignorant sheeple.

Americans for Prosperitymust want "austerity" for the Baby Boomers, they way they've been attacking the programs that
older people paid
in to for the last 30, 40, and 50 years (Medicare and Social Security).

But for the first time, Americans 45 and older make up
51% of the voting-age
population, with Americans that are 55 and older representing a large bulk of that group, giving older Americans wider influence in elections as the
Republicans stand stubbornly united over curtailing Medicare and
other benefits that working-class Americans generally use sometime in their
life. As a whole, the numbers point to a rapidly "graying nation" driven largely by the nation’s 78 million
Baby Boomers, who are now between the ages of 46 and 65...and looking ahead to retirement.
Or as Bud Meyers might say, "Cool! Old people rule, young punks
drool!"

E. Mark Braden, a former chief counsel to the Republican National Committee who
now advises elected officials and state legislatures, says “Given the current fiscal concerns, it’s going to be a test case whether
Republicans [such as Americans for Prosperity and Tea Party radicals] or Democrats can talk about entitlement
reform without getting
killed politically."

So who, exactly, is Americans for Prosperity?Americans for
Prosperity was founded by the billionaire Koch Brothers and their propaganda
advocacy group qualifies as a not-for-profit organization under the
IRS code - and it doesn't disclose the identity of its donors either, or the
amounts of money those contributors have given (almost like a secret society
that's ashamed or afraid of being found out).

In 2009, the radical group was involved in organizing un-informed and naive Tea
Party protesters at many of the health care townhall meetings across the
nation, and the Americans for Prosperity Foundation ran a $1.7
million TV ad campaign alleging that the Democrat's national health care
plan would result in a Canadian-like system (but all the Canadians I know LIKE
their healthcare plan). The Republicans have always been well-known for their
fear mongering and scare tactics.

But just recently Republican Mitt
Romney defended his healthcare plan in Massachusetts saying,
"Overall I am proud of the fact that we did our best for our people and got
people insured...absolutely!"

Working-class voting Republican taxpayers need to be reminded that if it
were not for taxes and government, we wouldn't have things like the Golden Gate
Bridge, Hoover Dam, or the national highway system because these are not
profitable enterprises that CEOs (or wealthy people like Lady Gaga or Paris
Hilton) would invest in.

I personally feel that the richest among us who live in this country (as
our community and business leaders) have a moral obligation to this country and
it's people because as the caretakers of our monetary wealth and as the captains
of our economy, their decisions affect all of us. It was THE PEOPLE (both Republican
and Democratic voters) who created the political environment in which for these
multi-national corporations to operate. Outsourcing jobs is
"un-American" and a slap in the face to all those who died in wars
before them to preserve Democracy.

From one of my posts: "Barney Frank says that the word 'government'
is just a name we use to describe something we all want to do together. But the
uber-rich have already seceded from the Union. They have their private schools
and gated communities, and many have their own islands. And they don't want to
pay any taxes to run a government that everybody else needs and uses."

But if the rich (and the soul-less multi-national corporations) are not
willing to "share the wealth", then I say WE TAKE IT THROUGH
TAXES. Their threats of leaving the country and doing business elsewhere is
meaningless now...their factories have already left. I'd suggest that they also
leave the country, but I'd also insist that after they leave the people they destroyed behind, that they also leave their American citizenships behind as well.

Today in a newsletter I received from Americans for Prosperity it claims that "more than 70% of the federal budget is mandatory spending on entitlement programs and interest payments on the
national debt".

Holy Batman! Does that mean we might have to end our three wars, build less
nuclear submarines, and raise taxes on the uber-rich? Should congress share in
the sacrifice and take pay-cuts? Should we start collecting taxes from corporate
tax-dodgers? Should we stop giving away money to companies earning record
profits?

First of all, the words "mandatory" and "entitlement" are not entirely accurate
descriptions. Maybe one could make a case that spending on interest is "mandatory",
but spending on Social Security and Medicare is not. Congress could vote to end them. If Congress can vote to end them, they are
not mandatory; they are discretionary. The spending does occur automatically unless Congress votes
not to spend. So most of what
is called mandatory spending should be called "automatic discretionary
spending".

By the pie chart below from the Congressional
Budget Office, you can see that the Americans for Prosperity
might have also said, "About 45% of the federal budget is discretionary spending (defense, non-defense, and the interest). The other 55% is for Social Security, Medicare, and
Medicaid, Veterans benefits, etc." And if you'll notice, under "Defense" our
nuclear weapons program isn't even included. That's budgeted under the Department of
Energy, and is listed in another "secret" pie chart, along with
Roswell, Area 51, and other "Black Budget" items that the Republicans
like to pay for with our tax dollars.

But when we talk about "entitlements", shouldn't we also include "corporate entitlements" as well, such as
annual subsidies for big
oil? The Republicans are OK with this though, after all...the GOP represents
the uber-rich and mammoth corporations. The wealthy always gets the big breaks from the GOP, whereas the working-class
peons always
gets the big screw. Read: How Raising Retirement Age Screws the Poor -
"Life expectancy in the top half of the income distribution has indeed risen dramatically over the past few decades. But in the bottom half of the income distribution, it's barely risen at all."

The Koch brothers might live a long and rich life, while the rest of us bust
our asses off until the day we drop dead...about the same time the government
says we can finally retire; but by then we'll no longer need healthcare....we'll
be dead. Is that the GOP's master plan to save on the deficit?

No comments:

Post a Comment

Should Hillary Clinton be indicted by Donald Trump's new AG?

Blogster-at-Large

Bud Meyers writes about the economy, politics, Social Security, corporate outsourcing, labor statistics, the REAL unemployment rate, taxes and tax evasion, government and corporate corruption, and the plight of the long-term unemployed.